Digital Nomad Packing List

New to traveling the world and/or digital nomad life? Here’s a list of useful things you should take with you on your journeys – most of which are light and compact so you can fit it all in one carry-on suitcase.

The Vapur collapisible water bottle is one of my favorite purchases. It saves me money and the planet. It’s the perfect water bottle for world travel due to it’s lightweight, compact design and carabiner for attaching to your backpack when it’s in use.

At some point, you’re going to end up in a hostel without a towel. Be prepared with this fast-drying, compact microfiber towel from Sunland. It’s inexpensive, won’t take up much space, and dries fast so it won’t get moldy.

Chances are you’re going to end up scuba diving, going to the beach/pool, or simply getting caught in the rain. That’s why you need a Dry Bag: Earth Pak 10L Waterproof Dry Bag With Waterproof Phone Case. I use it as my every day carry bag in Southeast Asia because during rainy season, you just never know when it’s going to start downpouring. This 10L model will fit a 13″ inch Macbook laptop along with a charger, world adapter, and more; or if you’re heading to the beach, it’ll perfectly fit sandals, a shirt, phone, keys, and more.

Advice for nomads, don’t take more than a carry-on. Sounds crazy, I know. A fellow nomad told me the same thing before I left, and I ignored them…and I regretted it. Invest in a great backpack that also works as carry-on luggage. I recommend the Osprey 46L Travel Backpack. Then also take a personal item, aka a smaller backpack or purse or whatever you like to carry your laptop around in (although I typically just use my dry bag).

You’re going to want more than one iphone charging cables in case you lose one or if you’re just lazy like me and hate having to unplug the one next to your bed to take to the coffee shop, and having multiple lengths is just nice. If you have an Android, here’s some for you.

Call me old fashioned, but I’m still into wired headphones (mainly because I’m a DJ and DJs can’t use wireless). By far my favorite on-ear DJ headphones are Urbanears Zinken. They sound great, look clean, come in a bunch of colors, have a reversible 1/4 -> 1/8 cord (DJs will understand), and allow your friends to plugin to them so you both can listen to the same thing.

Clothes

This is up to you, I’d just recommend bring less than you think you need. To keep things simple, I only packed black and white clothes so that everything would match (and because I’m from NYC and that’s really all I owned). Within that stipulation, I then brought a handful of t-shirts and tanks, 3 pairs of athletic shorts (I recommend Nike running shorts with a back zipper pocket for money/keys because they pack small and also double as swimsuits), one pair of jeans, one pair of jorts, one sweatshirt, one pair of running shoes, one pair of Chacos Sandals, one pair of Adidas Adilette slide sandals (what I wear 90% of the time in Southeast Asia), one hat, one sport watch, a gold chain (necessary), and a bolo tie (also v necessary).

The biggest regret I have is not bringing more workout clothes since that’s really what needs washed after each wear. Then again, I hardly worked out before I left so who knew?

Other Stuff

Then there’s bathroom stuff, a laptop and its accessories, so on and so forth, but I figured you’d know that already.